5 Core Issues that will Fuel Growth in your Church in 2018

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5 Core Issues that will Fuel Growth in your Church in 2018

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Stuckness is no respecter of the “brand” or “flavor” of a church. All kinds of churches across America are stuck. Large churches, small churches, old churches, new churches, Baptist churches, Methodist churches, Nazarene churches, Presbyterian church and even non-denominational churches are stuck.

At the Unstuck Group we’ve literally worked with hundreds of churches and one of the many things we’ve learned along the way is that there are 5 Core Issues that keep churches stuck.

The good news is that in 2018 your church doesn’t have to stay stuck.

This year your church can take a different approach. I’m not talking about trying harder, I’m talking about trying different. I’m also not talking about making some risk free small tweaks. If you want different results you’ve got to adopt a different strategy and employ different tactics.

What are you and your team willing to differently this year when it comes to your approach to these 5 Core Issues?

Discipleship Pathway

I’ve seen a lot of churches that offer a myriad of classes, small groups, and a grocery list of ministries that clutter people’s lives and compete for time, promotion, money and participation. But it’s rare to find a church that has a clear strategic pathway for people who are new to following Jesus to move towards knowing and following him. Is your church providing a menu of ministry offerings or clear next steps for people who connect with your church to become more fully devoted followers of Jesus?

Leadership Development

While many church leaders search for an off the shelf tool or some new content that is promised to produce leaders in their church they forget that the Church itself is the greatest leadership development engine that’s ever been designed. How deep is the leadership bench at your church? Most churches are struggling to identify their up and coming young leaders. Is your church attracting, identifying, and intentionally developing young leaders? Most are hopeful that it will somehow happen, but hope isn’t a strategy. Check out these 10 Articles that will Help your Church Develop Young Leaders. Developing people is different than offering a class. What are you going to do to invest in people differently this year?

Mission / Vision

Clarity is king. Without clarity churches are left to fumble around in a fog and hope for the best. However, the clearer become the better decisions can be made and the faster alignment can be accomplished. When everyone on the team has clarity, and knows where you’re going and who is supposed to do what next things can really get moving. Unfortunately, the majority of churches aren’t very clear about their mission (why they exist) or vision (where they are going), and so they stay stuck. Here’s a post that will help you and your team gain more clarity on your mission and vision.

Communications

It’s not uncommon in churches to find ministries competing for “air time” in the weekend worship services. Many church staff members mistakenly think that if “their” ministry offering isn’t announced on the weekend then it’s not important and it can’t be successful. As a result, churches end up relying on the weekend bulletin and announcements in their services as the extent of their communication strategy. They communicate everything to everyone, hoping to get someone involved. If it’s not announced from the stage then they spam people to death with constant emails that are just ignored or deleted. Interested in learning more about church communications? Check out these 10 Findings from New Research on Church Communications.

Volunteers

A simple but deep truth that seems to have been forgotten is that volunteering is discipleship. Volunteering is not just about roles that need to be filled anymore but people that need to be developed. The role of the Church Staff Member isn’t to do the ministry but to equip the church to do the ministry. While most church staff would generally agree to that statement, few are actually doing it. Want to learn more about developing an effective Volunteer Strategy at your Church? Check out these 10 Articles that will Help your Church Build a Stronger Volunteer Culture.

If you behave differently towards these 5 Core Issues this year, you’ll get different results. And if you need help getting unstuck then connect with us at the Unstuck Group, we can help this next year be the best year of ministry you’ve ever experienced!

Posted in Leadership

[Webinar Replay] The Unstuck Church – Why Churches Grow, Thrive, Decline & Die

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Recently, The Unstuck Team had a conversation about something we are really passionate about: The Unstuck Church. Every church has the potential to go through a very similar life cycle. Over time, most start, grow, thrive, decline, and eventually end. Through this webinar, we unpacked the stages of the church life cycle and answered questions like:

Do all churches hit all phases?
Where do growing churches typically get stuck moving toward sustained health?
What does sustained health look like?
What are the early warning signs a church has entered the maintenance season and started to decline?

If you missed out on our conversation about The Unstuck Church, you can check it out here:

Looking for resources to learn more?

Take our free Unstuck Church Assessment. You can take it individually or invite your team members to participate. This online tool is designed to help you best determine where your church sits today in its life cycle and your next steps.

Order The Unstuck Church. As we mentioned on the webinar, Tony Morgan’s new book, The Unstuck Church: Equipping Churches to Experience Sustained Health, goes in-depth on all seven stages of the typical life cycle of a church.

Posted in Leadership

New Leadership Coaching Networks!

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

The only way to get different results is to engage different systems. But we know it’s difficult to diagnose the misfiring systems in your church while carrying the day-to-day weight of ministry. Are you willing to get outside your routine to discover the ministry shifts that will help you lead your church at a higher level?

This spring, The Unstuck Group invites you to take your next steps with a community of like-minded church leaders. In our new Leadership Coaching Networks, you’ll learn best practices from healthy, growing churches and begin applying them in your church environment from day one.

Hope is not a strategy. Discover the shifts that need to happen in your ministry systems to lead your church at a higher level.

Iron sharpens iron. By joining a coaching network, you’ll take your next steps with a community of like-minded church leaders on a similar journey.

Leaders have a bias for action. You’ll learn best practices from healthy, growing churches and begin applying them in your church environment from day one.

Tony Morgan, myself and other ministry consultants from The Unstuck Group will host 3 new coaching networks starting in May 2017, each designed to help you engage the systems you will need as you lead in a new season of ministry:

Multisite Leadership

Reaching 1,000

Growing Beyond 2,000

We have space for just 8 churches in each network. Follow this link to check out all of the details and decide if this is the right next step for you!

Posted in Leadership

A Church’s Health Cannot Be Determined By Its Size

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

It is easy to become obsessed with church growth. Attendance is a number we can quickly see, measure, and compare. But we should never mistake attendance for more than what it is: a measure of the number of people attending, not the overall health of the church.

A church’s health cannot be determined by its size alone.

The health of your church should be more fully understood through things like:

The level of participation in biblical community
The degree to which people are using their gifts to serve
The generosity of your congregation
Whether or not you are reaching unchurched people
How well you’re connecting with young families in your community

And those are things you can actually track. I think we get hung up on attendance because we all want to be about leading more people to Jesus. But determining how to measure spiritual next steps and real life-change is a deeper conversation.

On Wednesday, November 2, Tony Morgan and The Unstuck Group will share a better way to measure church health in the free webinar, Vital Signs: How Healthy Churches Think Beyond Attendance Alone.

The team will share The Unstuck Group’s most recent research on church health built around 14 metrics that together give a fuller picture than attendance alone. And, they’ll talk about how to use these metrics make better decisions.

Click Here to Register for the Vital Signs Webinar

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

10 Articles that will Help Your Church Make More Disciples

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

No matter what label you put on it “Discipleship,” “Spiritual Maturity,” or “Spiritual Formation” it’s one of the most argued over and misunderstood issues in the church today. After all just because you know a lot about Jesus doesn’t make you a disciple and on the other hand being in a Small Group or “Biblical Community” doesn’t necessarily make you a disciple either. Over the years I’ve actually written quite a bit on the topic. Below are some of my more popular posts on discipleship.

Choosing the Right Small Group Model for your Church

There are pros and cons to every groups models, but the goal of all of this group stuff in churches is to simply make disciples. Check out these different group models and choose the best model that fits the unique personality of your church.

6 Keys to Successful Small Groups

In a conversation Chris Surratt who runs SmallGroup.com and serves as a Ministry Consultant with the Unstuck Group he mentioned 6 great questions that churches should be talking about if they want to have a successful small group ministry.

How to Convince your Sr. Pastor to Join a Small Group

One of the most common points of frustration I hear from church leaders around the country is, “My Senior Pastor wants Small Groups to be a big deal at our church, but they won’t be in a Small Group themselves.” And the natural follow up question that’s asked right after that statement, “How do I get my Senior Pastor to be in a Small Group?” In an attempt to answer that question, here are a couple of steps you can take to help convince your Sr. Pastor that they need to be in a Small Group.

Who is Responsible for the Spiritual Maturity of the Church?

I hear complaints by church attenders across North America that their church is not, “deep enough.” Essentially they’re saying that they’re hungry. And you want to know the first thought that passes through my mind when I hear comments like these? “If you’re hungry, eat. You know where the food is.”

Making Small Groups the Hub of your Ministry

NorthCoast Church is an outlier when it comes to small groups and you need to get to know these guys. While the norm across the nation is hovering at about 50% of weekend worship attendance in groups, NorthCoast is shattering that norm and boasts just over 90% of their weekend worship attendance in groups. That was enough for us to get on a plane and spend some time learning from these guys. Here are a few of my take aways:

Why the Church Wins when the Church Staff are in a Small Group

You’re as lonely as you want to be. Yes, relationships are risky. Any time you entrust your heart with others there’s a chance that it won’t be handled well. And I understand that church leaders often feel pressure to perform and live up to unrealistic expectations of perfection. But if the church staff chooses to shrink back from vulnerability and authenticity in relationship with others then you’ll build a culture of superficial pretending in your church. That’s why when the church staff takes the risk and jumps into a small group bible study the whole church wins!

Your Church isn’t Deep Enough

In my work consulting with churches and coaching church leaders this, “it’s not deep enough” phrase is becoming more common. And honestly it concerns me. Not because the majority of churches aren’t deep enough, but rather that a majority of people who are trying to follow Jesus misunderstand what spiritual depth really looks like.

5 Ways to Help your Small Groups be Successful

Whether you are starting from scratch at a brand-new church plant or blowing up a large system at an existing church, there are some principles that can help set up your new plan for success down the road. Here are five guidelines to think through.

Why Churches Don’t Grow #3: No Spiritual Maturity Pathway

Many churches are stuck or declining not because they have a difficult time attracting or introducing new people to Jesus but because they have no plan in place to move people towards spiritual maturity or the plan they’re working is broken. Here are a couple of indicators that there is a breakdown somewhere in your spiritual maturity pathway:

A Couple of Statements about Spiritual Maturity that will Mess with You Part-1

Simply put…these ideas will challenge your thinking on what spiritual maturity looks like and acts like. Happy reading! Bonus: here’s Part-2 of that post.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation